Columbus Flexes Power-Play Muscle as Athens Falls

Columbus Flexes Power-Play Muscle as Athens Falls

ATHENS, GA. - The Columbus River Dragons’ five-goal third period fired themselves to a 5-3 win against the Continental Division-leading Athens Rock Lobsters on Wednesday.

A 32-minute deadlock was broken by Filip Virgili, who converted on a feed to the backdoor from Garrett Milan in the second period.

He doubled the advantage when he got the finishing touches on a Devyn Mayea pop from the half wall with 5:07 gone in the third period.

However, the Athens lead crumbled after three consecutive power-play goals from Columbus in a span of five minutes; Ryan Hunter, Cody Wickline and Josh Colten combined to pull their team into the 3-2 lead.

Crustacean Nation held belief that they could at least make it to overtime after Carter Shinkaruk equalized on the power play, but the momentum shifted back toward Columbus after Kyle Moore found the five-hole on Carter McPhail.

The hosts chased the game looking to tie it up again, but the dagger was delivered by Hunter’s empty netter for his second of the game.

The Rock Lobsters (24-7-6-0, 84 pts) travel to Louisiana to take on the Baton Rouge Zydeco for a two-game set. The puck drops on game one at 8:05 p.m. EST.